The Fallout Life
by CreeperTime935
Summary: A group of 7 teenagers escape their local vault to see if the world is as messed up as they are taught. Upon finding that the world is not deathly irradiated they decide to go out and live a normal life, different from the one in their Vault.
1. Character Introduction and Reference

For reference and introduction:

Ben: Does not like heavy guns, likes to have the upper hand, works well under pressure, wants to always help, Brother to Riley

Jonah: Good with virtual tech, Somewhat shy but not afraid to fight

Nick: Cusses, Easily angered, Will fight for what is right, Likes Ivory

Riley: Brother to Ben, Good with mechanical tech, likes to plan, good at breaking into stuff

Sam: Shy, Easy to scare, Does not like blood or fighting, Good at staying hidden, Friends with Eric

Eric: Outgoing, Muscular, Likes fighting, Loves dogs, Does not like to plan, Friends with Sam

Ivory: Very Hot, Knows Nick has crush but does not show it, good at lying


	2. Chapter 1: Ben

Ben:

I awoke, dripping as always, and stretched to get my blood moving around again. Being in a coma for a week can do that to you. I look around and see my seven other bunkmates getting up as well; Jonah, Nick, Riley, Sam, Eric, and the only girl Ivory. We all look like smurfs; our skin blue from the lack of oxygen, but this always goes away after an hour or so. Almost in sync, we get out of our pods and close them, put on our clothes, and hurry to the Cafeteria for first dibs on breakfast.

Breakfast, as always, is a glass of water with all of vitamins and minerals we need in them, a nutrition pill about the size of a kidney bean that supplies us with all the energy we need for the day, and a luxury food of our choice. I always choose a bowl of chocolate pudding so I can wash out the taste of the nutrition pill, which tastes like burnt cardboard.

I grab my plate from the breakfast machine and head over to my designated seat at Table 14, where the rest of my bunkmates reside. When I sit down I am greeted by my best friend Riley who is already glued to his ECD (Electronic Connections Device), "Did you hear, three people were iced this morning!" he exclaims. "That is the most we have ever had in a day, and none of them made it out either."

Being iced is the worst thing that could happen to you in the waking morning, if the sleeping pods don't keep the temperatures just right then ice will build up around you, since you are on oxygen while you are asleep, you will not be aware of what is happening, but when you wake, you are surrounded by ice, unable to get up or breath. Some guards wake up early to make sure no one is iced in, but they don't get around to checking everyone in the morning, and even if they do find you iced in they might not be able to crack you out in time, and you would just be lying, freezing and suffocating in your pod. In my book that is the worst way to go, knowing that you are going to die but being unable to do anything to stop it.

"This will cause more people to pester the Overseer to upgrade or fix those pods, nobody wants to die like that," Riley said. "And the worst part is, we will be affected by this soon."

"Crap, he's right, "Nick muttered. "We are being moved next year."

While a year seems to be far away for anyone living in the Above, in this Vault we are awake for 14 hours, just like a normal day, but we go into a non-aging pod for a seven-day period, the longest we can go before it starts to hurt you instead of help. So, we are only awake for 52 days of the year, the rest of the time is spent in suspended animation. In about a year's time, we will all turn sixteen, therefore putting us as an option for relocation into the adult pods, the ones that can ice you in.

"I wonder how many generations have lived down here?" inquired Jonah. "Are we going to be living here our entire lives?"

"Hopefully not, but that damned Overseer never tells us anything," Nick muttered. "I wanna get outta here, screw this Vault, it's more like a prison anyway, and when have we last heard a report on what the Above is like, Never! Even if I don't get to leave I just want to see what has become of the Earth. who wants to join?"

As I look around I can see that everyone is wearing the same skeptical face I am, but curiosity wins over and we all nod our heads in unison and promise to meet that night to sketch out our plan.

Many weeks later, just 2 sleeping periods until our 16th birthdays, our plan was ready to go. We had everything covered, pod body replacements, ways to get past the guards, even a way to open the Vault Door; we just had to hope nothing went wrong. The pods scan and make sure that there is organic matter in the pod before closing, so we ordered and collected about 250 potatoes as our Luxury food to take the place of one of us, the replaced person will wait until the pods close then release the rest of us. Sam had volunteered to hide until we could be let out after all the guards had taken off to go to sleep. We would then make our way to the top of the Vault and silence the Vault door alarm. Jonah would hack the door controls and opened the doors. We would all look outside and then pop back into our pods for the week's sleep.

The first half went all as planned, we got out of our pods and made our way to the Vault Door room, but there were two guards stationed there.

"Ivory can you distract them, while Eric and Sam, you guys, silently find a way to deal with them, like knocking them out with a fire extinguisher," I directed. "Jonah you will make your way to the controls, and Nick… you will keep watch, while I will find the alarm controls."

Ivory walks calmly around the corner and I hear the guards immediately yelled at her, "Hey get back to your pod, you are not allowed up here!"

She acts like she can't hear them and I signal for Eric and Sam to make their move to get behind the guards, they run; gradually make their way to the back of the Vault Door Control room by hiding behind some equipment along the way. One of the guards starts advancing on Ivory with the intent to forcefully remove her from the room, Eric finds the closest heavy object, ironically being a fire extinguisher, and sneaks up on the guard that had not moved and hit him over the head. The resulting sound of the fire extinguisher rings across the room. This greatly surprises the second guard, as he turns to find that there was more than one person here. He pulls his radio out of his belt and starts talking frantically into it, as Eric had started to advance on his position.

"This is Vault Door, I need backup! There are…" the guard yelled into the mic before a satisfying bang silenced his calls for help.

"Shit, we need to get going now," Nick calls from the hallway. "I can hear boots coming up the stairs." Sure enough, we all heard the dreaded clang of guard boots running up the stairs.

"Jonah how close are you to opening the Door," I yell. "We have maybe two minutes before the guards get here."

"I'm almost done, see if the guards have a password or anything that could help me out," Jonah said typing code onto a keyboard.

I put my hand in one of the guard's back pockets and produce a small piece of paper that says: Vault Door Password: 082377. I run to Jonah and show read the password to him as he types it into the computer and hits enter. "I hope this works," I say. "We don't have any more time."

A rumbling shakes the room and a large pole comes out of the ceiling, spreading dust across the room, and inserts itself into the center of the Vault Door; a loud screech gives way to the sound of rumbling as the Vault Door is pulled out and rolled away from the wall. A bright light floods the room, unlike any artificial light we had lived within the Vault.

"Holy crap, what is that," Nick said.

"Who cares, let's get going. Before the other guards get here - hurry up Jonah," Eric adds.

We run blindly into the Above with nothing but the footsteps and shouts of the guards to keep us moving.


	3. Chapter 2: Jonah

Jonah:

I'm not sure if we should have left the Vault or not, we were being kept in the dark about everything that went on there, but it still was safe and we knew enough to feel safe in our surroundings. We could go back, but I have a feeling that would not go over well with everyone else. Now that we don't have the pods, we will be aging faster than everyone else still in the Vault, but we will technically have more time than them to do what we want, at the moment.

We all stand on a large ledge that looks down from the mountain that the Vault was on to a small valley, lush and green. There are large hills on the opposite side that prevents me from looking any further.

"W-wow," utters Sam. "Thi-this is beautiful, bu-but I thought that the Vault teachers said thi-thi-this place was irradiated and desolate."

"I did too, but obviously they fucking lied," Nick says, obviously frustrated. "We could have lived out here for our entire lives, we would be able to live normal lives, running around and playing, living off of the land and not test tube grown food."

"I-I agree," Sam says nodding. "It would have been ni-nice to live a normalized childhood, even if w-we would have dangers, that makes life what it is."

We all stood there taking in the beautiful view that our eyes beheld. I hope that we can survive out here, and maybe even live in the valley after we explore around a little bit and make sure it is safe. This world is so beautiful, but I wonder what lead to its near destruction in the first place. Who would want to destroy whole patches of this Earth to settle small disputes that could have been talked out in person.

When I was staring my brain remembers the fact that we had no safe place for the night, as well as no food or water. We were not prepared for surviving out here. We needed a place to live that will be near help and clean water. The only thing I don't know about is what we will do for food, I've never cooked any animal other than a fish before, and I don't know what hundreds of years of radiation will have done to salmon, but probably nothing good.

"We need a place to sleep, and we need to get supplies because, like we learned, there are dangerous things and people out here," I remind everyone. "I want a place to call home now."

"I agree that will be our top priority, but I also wonder if there have been any scientific advancements in all this time?" Riley says. "Or did the bombs set us back overall, I mean we have anti-aging tech, but can we still make that or has that knowledge been lost?

"I don't know, but I see a town in the valley," Ivory observes. "We should head there, but be wary of our surroundings at all times."

"L-look through all of the houses for supplies, bu-but remember; we don't know if people are still living here, w-w-we don't need to go looking for trouble," Sam stutters, concerned.

We split up and looked around the town for about an hour and a half. I found only a few items that were useful like some food and drinks in an old refrigerator and cupboards and brought them to the center of town, where we were supposed to meet, and waited.

When we all arrived we went through everything that we found one by one voting on whether it was going to be useful or not. We found a lot of water and food which was good, Riley was able to open a safe that contained a combat shotgun, two pistols, and a first aid kit. I found a house where somebody had a bomb shelter, but obviously didn't make it as it was still stocked with food, a water purifier, a Tommy gun, ammo for our other guns, more health supplies, and four sleeping bags. Eric found a tank that was stuck in the back of a house, but was unable to pry it's top open, and the rest of the group were unable to find anything of use.

"Who is gonna carry all of this stuff, cause I don't want to," Nick complains.

"We should split it up between us s-so we all pull a fair share," Sam says. "W-we should split the guns between us, with ammo for each on that same person, anyone nau-not carrying guns will carry food and water."

"I don't want a gun, so I'll take the first aid and the water purifier," Ben adds. "I think that Nick should have the Tommy gun, Riley and Jonah, the two pistols, and Ivory with the shotgun, we will find something for you Eric, but for now could you carry the food and water please."

"Fine but in the next town I get to pick from what we get, deal?" Eric asks.

"Alright, Eric, but we also need to think about where we are going to bed for the night," Ivory says. "We aren't safe out here and need to make a home somewhere, somewhere we can protect from the things they tell us are out here.

We all pick up the supplies Ben suggested and leave for the mountains nearest the edge of the valley wondering what we will see on the other side, if anything is there at all.

Two hours later we arrive at the top just as the sun was setting behind us where our old home still lay, and ahead of us is the entire world: beaten by radiation, bombs, and the remains of once great cities strewn in front of us. The only things we can see was a more modern city built over the impact crater of a nuclear bomb about twenty-five miles away, a small town only ten miles from the hill we were on, and a huge mountain off in the distance with smoke pouring out of the top. Even from here I see the glow of the lava that must lie inside it.

"There are other people out here, I mean I knew there were people out here, just not enough to make a city!" Eric says in awe. "We could live there, but I wonder if they know there is a Vault here."

"Le-let's just get there safe and sound, th-then we can be happy and be breathing f-fresh, non-augmented air," Sam says. "And if we start now we could make it before night, a-a-and I would like to have a bed e-especially out here."

"I don't want to run the risk of being caught out at night, so let's just go back to the town where we know is safe and rest, a lot has happened today," Riley says quietly.

Without argument we start heading back to the town upon returning we lay out the sleeping bags for Eric, Sam, Nick, and Ivory. Nick put his right next to Ivory's, no surprise there, and Ben and I found a few couch cushions that were not in too bad shape and made one big mattress. Trying to sleep is weird because we have never actually slept before, only been suspended in time, so like normal we all waited to go to "sleep", but that never happened. We all sit staring at the night sky which was now peppered with bright stars, and the occasional searchlight from that big town. Ivory, Eric, Riley, and Ben all get up and start working on something after a few hours, while I sit staring for what felt like years before I see the light of the sun brighten the sky, hiding the beautiful stars.


	4. Chapter 3: Sam

Sam:

Unlike the others, I could sleep because I have slept before. Sometimes I slept out of my cryo tube and walk around as everyone sleeps. The scanner on my pod is broken, so that makes sneaking around possible. That is why I volunteered myself for staying out because I knew even if the potato idea didn't work on my scanner, it would not be able to send information to the alarm system. Now that I think about it, I am technically eighteen now because of all my time out of the pods.

I woke up to see many drowsy faces packing up all the sleeping bags except for mine and haphazardly loading up to find different ways to carry their supplies to our next destination, the small city, with the least amount of discomfort. Eric, my best friend, helps me up and gives me a carry sack that the others had made while I was sleeping.

"Thanks," I say with a yawn. "Is everyone e-else ready to go?"

"We're waiting for Nick to finish packing and of course you, then yeah," Ben replies. "And also, how did you fall asleep so easily, none of us were able to."

"I-I don't know," I say. "Maybe I was just re-really tired and ready for an n-night's sleep."

An hour later, we are ready to go, the sun has not yet come over the hills, but it is bright enough to see fairly far. We hike up the same way we did yesterday to see the same sight we did last night, but something about this city gives me a feeling of unease, and as I've found, my gut usually tells the truth.

Upon reaching the top of the hill, I already knew that it will not be a fun journey, as the small town we saw yesterday, had had half of its houses burned to the ground with parts of it still glowing yellow. A cloud of smoke is drifting across the sky towards us obscuring some of the mountains on the other side of this wasteland.

"It looks like something bad happened in that town, man-made, should we even still go through it to get to the big city?" Ben asks. Or would that run too much of a risk?"

"I feel that we should still go through it," Eric gruffly replies. "We can handle."

"All-alright then guys, jus-just we should be careful," I say.

With the wind to our back, we start descending towards the city on fire, unknowing what would come our way.


	5. Chapter 4: Nick

Falling half of the way down was not on my list to impress Ivory; I looked retarded, tripping over the only rock in sight. I felt even worse when she of all people came to help me up. My cheeks were more red than they were dirty from the fall because of my uncanny ability to hide my emotions. Thanks me!

"I'm fine," I reply to the somewhat concerned faces, "I was taking in the scenery and wasn't looking, okay? Can we go now."

"Alright then, are you sure you're not hurt Nick," Ivory says, "Let's keep moving then."

We walk for four more hours until the sun is directly above us before we are about a mile away from the burned town. This town looks even more intimidating closer because of the burned out windows and blackened buildings that are facing us. When we were a lot closer I could spot something hanging out of a window that fell to the ground a few seconds later. I walked up to the object and recoiled immediately, "Jesus Christ!" I shriek, "This is a burned body!"

"God…," Eric says, heavily dropping the food and water, "Jez, this is a body alright; this looks like it was from the fire last night. I wanted to meet people but not like this, now I don't like this place even more."


End file.
